Customer Reviews

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Vol. 1

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This collection of comics from the Hellraiser series is a must-own for any Hellraiser fan. The stories are entertaining, often complex, and beautifully drawn by the artists. Certain stories will keep you on the edge of your seat, while others will send you into a contemplative quandry for a time. The artwork alone is worth the price. Highly recommended for both Hellraiser and comic book fans.

I have collected about 15 Hellraiser comics over the years, but there were many stories here I had not read. Though not written by Barker, they are well researched and keep the myth alive. We would not have hellraiser 3,4 and 5 without the comics and whether thats good or bad they are still worth the indulgance (and Franchise). Alot of the artists used were fresh talent at the time, so there are some interesting spins on the traditional cenobites. Still v. bloody and sadistic. Created for all die hard fans.

The Hellraiser series of movies have been uneven, although I think 2 was the best. These stories don't have much to do with the mythology of the movies, instead re-creating the horror without the depth.

I used to read the series of graphics occassionally. Like with Heavy Metal, the stories hit sharp just often enough that I'd revisit every once in awhile. This collection couldn't keep me interested long enough to finish.

Just really not terribly good.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser Collected Best I has some contributions that are just much, much better than others, but also some that are much, much worse. Fortunately none of the comics are completely worthless; when it comes to the storyline they're all well thought-out and some of them quite original, but quite frankly, style-wise some of the contributions don't seem to go very well with a story from the world of Hellraiser. Not that they're not great artists, because they're all highly skilled. But I just cannot see them as suitable for the realm of the Cenobites.

But on the other hand, few things are as subjective as one's perception of art...

And speaking of being subjective; the story entitled "Life Flies to Wanton Boys" from 1990, written by Bunny Hampton-Macks and illustrated by Scott Hampton, is a stunning story, perhaps one of the best ones I've ever read. Lemarchand's puzzle box is present in no more than two frames, and not Pinhead nor any of his fellow Cenobites make a single appearance. But that's perfectly fine, because it's such a great story, immensely beautiful and highly original. Easily the highlight of the book!

Almost exclusively throughout the book, the theme of choice is punishment in Hell, resulting from earthly desires, and that's not very surprisingly when it's all about gnarly Cenobites and their funky torture-talents. However, believe it or not, but in one of the stories, not one single human being is killed! Not only that, this particular story even has a happy ending! (Well, actually, one more story has what can be considered a "happy" ending, but at least that one got some good old fashioned pain and suffering, too.)

I've rarely, if ever, been disappointed with anything related to Clive Barker. Still, if you don't think horror is the sweetest thing in the world, then you'll probably not be too excited about Clive Barker's Hellraiser Collected Best I, either.

Having read "For My Son" when it originally ran in the Hellraiser Summer Special, I can confirm that the first reviewer above is absolutely right: The last story page, the whole kicker, is missing. Oddly enough, you can go online and find at least two reviews that laud the story highly, even without the last page, so the force of the story and the language hold up even without it.

The Hellraiser comic series is like going to the greatest comedy club ever. All of the greats are there to perform for you: Jerry Seinfeld, George Carlin, Jay Leno, Robin Williams, Garry Shandling, etc. Jerry Seinfeld starts: "Why did the Chicken cross the road..? To get to the other side!" Robin Williams is next: "How many Blondes does it take to screw in a light bulb? To get to the other side!" Pretty soon you realize that no matter what the set-up may be, the punchline is always going to be "To get to the other side". That pretty much sums up Hellraiser in a nutshell. Different creative teams telling different stories that all have the same ending: A bad person gets his comeuppance from The Lament Configuration and The Cenobites. Wow.

I had collected the Hellraiser series when it was initially released, and was never really impressed by it. I always kept being lured back to the next issue by the stellar creative teams, and kept feeling let down. Stupid me, I actually ordered the Limited-Edition Leatherbound Hardcover of "Collected Best", thinking that maybe I just didn't "Get" the stories as a teen-ager. No, they really DID stink....

There ARE a few good ones, don't get me wrong. Dead Man's Hand and Like Flies To Wanton Boys break from the standard Hellraiser mold, Dear Diary and Wordsworth hew close to that selfsame mold, but are well-told nonetheless. For My Son starts strong, but falls into the "Same Punchline" trap outlined above. It doesn't so much end as just STOP; I think there might be a page missing from the end of the story because, for a Fifty Dollar Limited Edition, the book is riddled with production errors. The final, crucial, dialogue panel of Mazes of the Mind is blank, thereby rendering the whole story pointless, and the final story, Losing Herself In The Part, has the majority of it's pages printed out of order. Not that the sloppy story is any better when read the right way. The two-parter "The Harrowing" was NOT written by Clive Barker, as widely advertised. He came up with the plot, and three other so-called "Writers" did the wooden dialogue. The Harrower stories were some of the WORST Helraiser stories EVER, and I really have to question their inclusion here. (One of the heroes is a little blue Cherub that kills Cenobites by FARTING on them, another is an escaped Death-Row Inmate who has lethal SPIT! Pure, unadulterated [stuff].) I'd advise any but the most hard-core fans to avoid this at all costs. A few good stories, but they're FAR outweighed by the awful ones.

I bought this as a gift years ago, when the book came I wanted to keep it hahaha. Great collection!

I just loved it.When I first opened it, it wasn't very apelling to me, and I took several days to start reading.The first story I found a little lame, but the art was beautiful.And then I started reading all the others stories.Man, I couln't stop felling that thrill, the stories are so great, especially the last one about the actress.It just gives you that chill in the spine combined with pleasure that Hellraiser gives.That thing about "you shouldn't open the box, but you HAVE TO open it"
I gave it to a friend for birthday, but I'm definelly getting another one for me to keep. (sorry bad english, not the first language)

I didn't really like this one. All the stories were way different than the films, and not all that relevant to the movies. Very diferent. There were only a few of the stories that I thought were Ok, but overall I wasn't that impressed with the line up of short tales. I hope the 2nd and 3rd collection are a lot better.

It's actually pretty good (I had read another collection of Barker comics that wasn't so good, so I had my doubts). A couple of the stories seem to make little or no sense, but as a whole, they are well written stories. Most of the art is pretty good too. All in all, the collection is, well, pretty good-- and Gaiman is here too.